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I was in the big time Saturday night at The Bend Theatre with the full Maple Road band.. Sunday we had an acoustic gig and back in reality. It was an okay acoustic gig. We were background music for an event sponsored by wine makers and vendors. Daryl

About 6-8 weeks to get to the point where the website can be started, depending on build time for the sample necks

It's tone plywood.

I wouldn't call it hideous, but it does suffer from the fact that Les Paul came up with one of the most attractive guitar shapes ever and anything that bears a faint resemblance but is out of proportion seems really really wrong. Plus the control section of the scratchplate is truly horrendous.

There are so many compositions that have real meaning ('If I Had A Hammer', 'Blowing In The Wind', 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday' and hundreds more...). Personally, I'd much rather play stuff with real meaning than innocuous, bland, 'filler' stuff, whatever culture it's originally from. To me, human is human; the rest is simply coincidence of birth time and place. I see no problem here. Peace.

I bought the Ray5 a little while ago with the intention of replacing the preamp and possibly the pickup. My initial installation of a preamp made on an OSH Park PCB didn't work, which subsequently I suspect was due to a flat battery (doh!). I bought a Classic Preamp kit from Musikding and installed that instead. I put a connector on the PCB and the battery clip so I could remove the entire scratchplate if necessary without any unsoldering. When I got the Squier Vintage Modified Modified, it had a Warman MM pickup in the bridge position. As the pole pieces weren't best spaced for it, I replaced it with an Aguilar MM pickup which was a far better fit, leaving me with a Warman pickup with both coils nicely accessible. So I connected the coils in parallel and replaced the original pickup with that. Again, that was fitted with a connector with the bridge wire going to the ground side. The pots have 1/4" shafts which aren't as easy to get knobs for as 6mm shafts. Bloody primitive measuring systems. However, I did find a set of brass flat top knobs on Ebay which look rather nice on it. I'm pleased with the sound. Will be doing some more playing around.

That's a quality setup right there 😍

A photo from rehearsal this evening consisting of my Fender American Vintage 2 precision bass and 2008 Squier Classic Vibe Precision. Both fantastic basses and to be honest are closer to each other in feel, vibe and sound. The Av 2 has more bottom end whereas the classic vibe has a lovely vintage mid range to it but with a blindfold I’d be hard pushed to figure out which I was playing.

Seems my 'Jack V Custom' was pretty much their top of the range, way back when. I got mine for £300 with a case, strap, dunlop straplocks and a lead. It even had a fresh battery!

Me playing my B2 in 1987. The guitarist has the six-string version.

When I got the OLP Tony Levin, I hadn't realised that it was missing a truss rod wheel. But it was, and I needed to adjust the truss rod. I took the neck off and checked the truss rod end, which took a 4mm hex key. Grainger Guitar Parts sell truss rod wheel adaptors to fit 4mm adjusters, so I bought one (and then found that the short one that I'd bought was too short, so bought the standard one). The scratchplate covers part of the cutout for the truss rod wheel, and as the adaptor is longer than the original, it fouled the scratchplate. So I needed to do a little Dremelling. Trimmed scratchplate: Neck installed: Strung up: And everything works as it should.

Mine is a nice snug 4mm. Go smaller.

we have different definitions of "stripped things back" I think

What is the bass? Which way are you turning the truss rod?

Arrived today. Lights work Fine but no instructions, inc DMX protocol. In addition the IR remote does not work. Tomorrow I will try it with the DMX controller but does anyone have any ideas on how to activate Sound to light?

Personally I think it's both hideous and seriously overpriced, but I'm sure that's just me... I don't know how old it actually is, but it definitely has that 60s vibe to it. https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/376549673301?itmmeta=01K57SMEDVR45VFCG4WTP3D2TV&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAAwMHg7L1Zz0LA5DYYmRTS30mtQVSPNgxZajlUzTZPaSj5m1JCr2YHkIRmzPtEqOdzfF7QtUSpw3HVjaR3kovLsFHOdWFXUpgwuh5ulp46jZPpV6OH70uN5%2BuvbdfNZd61KUOCIDUhXBT64JO%2FQLvoDBLXo2EsyvaSO1dS267a%2Fjdyxp2PWJDhxx9TWxvN1TIkTQKhIFgn1sx3cGDPXIWiqx58kxxhRX43%2B5iUKSG40TdSfp37CQG4MTpFxPMprjD4Uw%3D%3D|tkp%3ABk9SR5Ln0fmpZg

Prelude & Yodel — Penguin Cafe Orchestra

there was some weird phasing going on so just stripped things back.

He was absolutely ace - what a lovely guy.

Is anyone else have ground noise issues using the supplied psu? I only noticed it tonight. The past few days I've had my helix plugged into the same power strip which must have grounded it. I was using my mooer psu for the anagram for a couple of days, then tried the supplied DG one. It's only when playing tonight since packing away the helix yesterday that I noticed so much noise.

Got a gig coming up and I’ve been asked to play a cover of Zombie by Fela Kuti which someone threw into a vaguely afrobeat-inspired playlist, and given the historical context of the song, and the fact that this band is a bunch of white guys with zero genuine connection to African culture, I feel like it’s not a good idea. I don’t think whoever came up with the playlist knows the context of the song, they just thought it would be a nice tune to jam on. I’m gonna say no to the gig (and the whole thing reminds me of that Alan Partridge scene where he talks about ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ and washing his car). But I’m curious if anyone else has come up against stuff like this - cultural appropriation and being uncomfortable playing covers of tunes that have historical / political significance. Doesn’t sit right with me at all. I feel similar about some other tunes too, What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye etc. Am I over thinking this? Where do you draw the line with stuff like this?

Could I please hold fire on payment until I see how the employment thing pans out ? Happy with 13£ though

What a guy!

THE SONS OF ILLINOIS operate out of Chelmsford, Essex. We play exciting, crowd-pleasing Chicago Blues and we very urgently need a bass player. You'll be a Fender P user and must be reliable, committed and have good availability. If you can also play upright bass it will be an advantage, but it's certainly NOT essential. Audition/rehearsals on a Sunday early evening in the CM1 postcode area. We have a good book of really decent gigs (including festivals) for 2026. We have a strong social media presence, with more than 2,000 followers on Facebook and a YouTube channel too. Band line-up is: Vocals/Harmonica Lead/Slide Guitar Lead/Rhythm Guitar Bass - the vacant position Drums/Percussion Please call Mark on 07885 858158 immediately if you're up for this!